Why doesn't Finasteride Hinder Beard Hair Growth?

[Mens Rea]

I believe testosterone is important, too.

BUT the main thing you need to remember is that finasteride doesn't inhibit all DHT, anyway.

And my final point is- alot of people who suffer from post finasteride syndrome DID find their beard growth slow down/stop alongside their hair not falling out anymore.


Clearly, its more complicated than we presently understand.

 

[GeminiX]

Even with my regimen I had no noticeable reduction in beard hair, I've had to have lots of painful pew pew laser beams shot at my face combined with Vaniqa and electrolysis.

 

[GeminiX]

Yup, very little T in my system; body hair is completely gone on it's own though (which is something)

 

[Chris87]

weird thing is..im 24...i dont have much body hair ..i cant grow a full beard..and i only have to shave once or twice a week. I was only on finasteride for like 2 months and just in that time i believe the amount of chest hair i had increased and it seemed like my facial hair was growing much faster and thicker

maybe from the elevated test?

 

[cuebald]

I'm 24 and I was growing more beard/body hair year by year until I started finasteride 2 years ago, the amount I have has stayed constant for those 2 years.

The way I understood it, that if a hair has been "triggered" to grow, it'll continue to grow even if you get castrated. However, no "new" hairs will be triggered to grow from that period.

The same works with male pattern baldness, if you lose all androgens before you go bald, you won't get a NW6 - but if you remove all androgens after reaching NW6 - because the hair has already been "triggered" to miniaturise etc - it won't grow back.

 

[TheGrayMan2001]

I've had a full beard since I was 17/18. It's gotten fuller and grown faster since then, and continued to while I was on finasteride from May '10 to January '11. In fact I could tell it was growing slightly faster than it had been, but I've noticed several periods of increased growth speeds since I was 17.

I suspect finasteride has almost nothing to do with it. I did notice some darker ugly body hairs disappeared or turned thinner, but after coming off of finasteride they re-emerged about a month later. I'm back on finasteride at a reduced dose of .25/mg now to see what it does, but probably nothing when it comes to the beard.

 

[Dedge89]

I'm 21 and I've definately experienced an enhanced rate of new facial hair growth during the 5 months I've been on finasteride now, unless it's purely coincidental...then again I've also experienced the most ridiculously increased Libido known to man while I've been on finasteride too, so my T levels must be CRAZY these days. :dunno:

 

[Bryan]

This thought occured to me. Finasteride Suppresses DHT by around 65%. DHT Stimulates Beard/body hair growth, yet it suppresses Scalp hair growth. So why do we not see an equal decrease in beard hair growth, coincide with our decrease in scalp hair loss. Is it because T is more strongly associated with Body/beard hair growth than DHT?

I think it's pretty obvious that castration has a greater total antiandrogenic effect than just the use of finasteride. In his 1960 study of the effect of castration on hair growth, Hamilton compared a number of effects in castrated individuals against the same effects in intact, age-matched control subjects. One of those factors was how much beard growth (measured in milligrams) that they all grew in every 24-hour period. The normal, intact men grew almost exactly 10 times as much beard hair as the castrated individuals (22.7 mg for the former, compared to 2.3 mg for the latter).

That may be a little misleading, though, because Hamilton doesn't say much about when (at what age) the castrated individuals were originally castrated, and (perhaps more importantly) whether it happened before or after puberty in each of them. I think castration (or antiandrogenic therapy like finasteride) well AFTER puberty is less likely to have a major effect on beard growth than castration BEFORE puberty. I think beard hair has less of a need for androgenic stimulation, the older you are.

 

[armandein]

http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/conten ... 20/10/1309
Is this study?

 

[Bryan]

Yes, that's the study I'm talking about.